But John could barely protect himself right now. He didn't dare dwell on the feuds of wealthy families.
He quickly put those thoughts aside and picked up where he had left off.
He said that Hydra kept a very tight lid on information.
Everyone was like an independent component, privy only to the tiny bit of information their clearance allowed.
He himself, for example, knew only that he was an assassin trained by the organization.
His job was to take on and carry out extremely difficult assassination missions all over the world, eliminating obstacles for the organization.
As for its other plans, he had no access to them.
This was also Hydra's most important rule of hierarchy: no one was ever allowed to overstep.
But there was one belief deeply rooted in the mind of every Hydra member.
At this point, a fanatical gleam flashed in John's eyes.
"That is to keep building Hydra's power! No matter the cost, Hydra will eventually rule the entire world! Cut off one head, two more grow back! Hail Hydra!"
John shouted the slogan with fervor.
Luca slapped John on the back of the head, interrupting his fervor.
"Don't shout slogans here! This isn't a pyramid scheme rally. Keep talking, and tell us something useful."
John shrank back and settled down.
I'm talking, so why did you have to hit me...
Couldn't you be a little more civilized...
But he didn't dare say much. He couldn't beat Luca in a fight or an argument.
As for Hydra's origins,
John honestly didn't know much himself.
He only knew that the organization had a very long history.
"You may have read in history books that Captain America defeated Hydra and saved the world during World War II."
There was a trace of mockery in John's voice.
"Actually, that was all a lie. The Hydra that Captain America went to such lengths to take down back then was just a European branch led by Red Skull Schmidt. Hydra's true core forces had already infiltrated every corner of the world."
John glanced at the others and dropped a bombshell.
"Also, judging from some scraps of information I picked up at the base over the years..."
"Schmidt, whom everyone believes died in the plane crash, doesn't seem to be dead either. The speculation is that he just went somewhere nobody knows about."
After recounting this history, John paused.
Then he voiced a question that had long puzzled him.
"Actually, there's one thing I've never been able to figure out. It's also the last thing I wanted to tell you."
"Normally, S.H.I.E.L.D. would definitely have gotten wind of an assassination plot as significant as the one against the Stark Family."
John shook his head, thoroughly baffled.
"If they knew you were in danger, why didn't they send agents to protect you tonight? Why did they just let us infiltrate so easily?"
"If you hadn't been prepared yourselves, you'd have died a hundred times over tonight."
Hearing John's question,
Tony and Luca both stopped what they were doing.
Their eyes met, and each saw the gravity in the other's gaze.
But neither spoke, silently digesting what they had just heard.
Luca was at a loss for words.
He had thought Captain America was a badass, but it turned out that the Hydra he had risked his life to take down was just one of its branches?
If this got out, governments and historians around the world would probably be shocked speechless.
"Shocking! Captain America turned out to be this kind of person..."
"Shocking! A secret that fooled everyone for decades..."
But in any case,
it seemed that Hydra really was a behemoth lurking in the shadows, with unfathomable power.
He felt he had to find time to investigate what was really going on.
And what about the S.H.I.E.L.D. John had mentioned?
The image of the agent with the pitiful hairline from earlier that day immediately sprang to Luca's mind.
What was that guy's name again?
Oh, right, he seemed to be called Phil Coulson.
The man with the receding hairline had introduced himself as being from something called the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short.
If what John said was true,
then S.H.I.E.L.D. was clearly a mysterious organization that stood opposed to Hydra and had vast resources of its own.
Besides, they still didn't know what S.H.I.E.L.D. actually got up to, so it was hard to say whether it was friend or foe.
Luca turned to look at Tony.
Tony's brow was tightly furrowed, and he was clearly thinking about something too.
Luca understood that Tony must also have realized how serious the situation was.
Originally, they had only planned to deal with the traitor in the company.
But now it seemed that, without realizing it, they had become caught up in a vortex between two mysterious organizations.
Just as Luca was still thinking about what to do,
Tony suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts.
"Those two damn organizations have names uglier than each other."
"One's called Hydra. It sounds like a disgusting reptile. The other's called S.H.I.E.L.D. It sounds like a company that sells security equipment."
"Couldn't they learn from Stark Industries and pick a name that sounds a little more high-tech?"
"Why are you all looking at me?! Am I wrong?"
Luca felt somewhat helpless.
Why was Tony still hung up on names at a time like this?
Rubbing his temples, Luca decided to ignore Tony's train of thought.
After speaking, Tony suddenly walked over to a briefcase in the corner of the living room.
He crouched down, opened its combination lock, and rummaged inside for a while.
Soon, Tony took out a miniature mechanical device flashing with a faint red light.
A tiny needle protruded from the front of the device.
The device was only the size of a fingernail, extremely small.
Tony took it and returned to John.
Under John's bewildered gaze, he roughly pulled open the combat suit over his chest.
Then Tony aimed the miniature machine in his hand at John's heart.
There was a soft pop.
Tony forcefully implanted the device near John's heart!
John was startled, his eyes widening.
He felt a sharp pain in his chest as a cold foreign object burrowed into his body.
Terrified, he twisted desperately in the chair, trying to get away.
"Damn you, Stark! What did you do to me? What the hell did you inject me with?!"
John screamed in terror.
Seeing what Tony had done, Luca became interested too.
He hurried over to examine the little red dot on John's chest and asked curiously,
"Tony, what did you inject him with? A new kind of poison? Or a tracker? The workmanship looks a little rough, like something from the last century."